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Dib Membrane
Dib is a young, eccentric boy who possesses a fascination with unexplained paranormal phenomena, such as ghost hunting, Ufology, and cryptozoology, as well as with the supernatural and occult. He intercepted the words spoken at the Great Assigning on planet Conventia in the first episode with his laptop. Six months later, he noticed a strange, green foreign exchange student enter his classroom. Dib tried his best to convince the world that it is in danger, but nobody believed him, due to previous erroneous claims of supernatural beings. Since then, he has made it his mission to protect his oblivious home from Zim's schemes against all odds. Dib can be categorized as the "foil character" of ''Invader Zim''; he contrasts Zim, sharpening their respective characteristics. Dib and his sister Gaz are the only children attending Skool who know Zim is an alien, but only Dib seems affected by this and even becomes obsessed with the idea of exposing Zim. Fortunately for Zim, Dib is unpopular at School, and none of the other children will even listen to what he says, let alone believe what he is saying. Dib quickly became Zim's greatest enemy, and will stop at nothing to deter him from conquering the Earth. Appearance Dib is eleven Earth years old and resembles his father, Professor Membrane. Both have black, scythe-like hair; in Dib's Wonderful Life of Doom Dib's got more jagged and bigger with age. Many people claim that Dib's head is big, a running gag in the show; but it's not visibly bigger. The redesign process God Save the Dib, however, actually gave him a bigger head. His hair spike seems to be solid, and retains its shape even when getting wet. It took a water balloon of ridiculous proportions dropped from Earth's orbit and a second normal water balloon in order to get it to bend, as seen in The Wettening. Dib seems to be able to zip-line with his hair spike (using the spike as the runners), as seen in Backseat Drivers From Beyond the Stars. Likewise, it seems solid enough to punch through a brick wall like any part of his body if Dib is flung hard enough, as seen in Mortos der Soulstealer. He wears a pair of round glasses and a trademark black trench coat along with a blue shirt with an unsmiling grey face on it, pulled directly from Squee!, in which the main character, Todd, also known as Squee, wears exactly the same shirt. Personality Dib is incredibly determined and intelligent, and continues to hunt the paranormal despite being put down by his peers and family. It's unknown whether or not Dib hates all aliens, or just aliens that threaten Earth (like Zim and Tak). This interpretation usually varies from fan to fan, seeing as Dib would have teamed up with the aliens in the Resisty as well as the Meekrob in the series finale. He also shares his father's intelligence; proving to be very adept at creating things (like the water-balloon launcher in The Wettening) and quick to pick up on alien technology (like being able to hack Zim's computers and repair and reprogram Tak's ship). Early on in the series, Dib was shown to be extremely desperate as well as determined, resulting in what could best be described as an obnoxious, unfunny personality. As the series progressed, however, he became funnier, much less desperate, more self-deprecatory and a more sympathetic character overall. Past with Mysterious Mysteries Dib is also obsessed with his favourite television show, Mysterious Mysteries. He even got to make an appearance on the show in the episode 'Mysterious Mysteries' (though he has evidently appeared on it before; that occasion resulted in the host of the show somehow acquiring a scar on his face, though how is unknown). He tried to prove that Zim is an alien on that episode, but the host concluded that he was crazy. He also concluded that GIR was "definitely crazy" and that, while he felt bad for the "green kid" but states that there was probably a good chance that he was also crazy... but not an alien. Role in Invader Zim Even though he's antagonistic towards Zim (who's interpreted as an anti-hero), Dib can be considered a hero. This means that while he's technically a hero, he's considered to be an antagonist in Zim's point of view. He's declared himself "Sole Defender of Earth", and is there to thwart Zim's plans, but the two have teamed up on more than one occasion when it benefits them both (such as in "Bolognius Maximus"). Reputation ".]]Dib is often called "crazy" or "insane", and is constantly mocked for his theories. He even got put in a "Crazy Bucket", a possible alternative to a straitjacket. Overall, most of his classmates try to ignore him. Dib's also known by NASAPlace and even the FBI for his paranormal-related antics. He's been on the front page of the newspaper twice (shown in "Dark Harvest" and Mortos der Soulstealer), so it's likely that a good deal of the city is aware of the trouble he frequently ends up in. Beliefs He believes Zim and GIR are the "bad guys", while he and Gaz are the "good guys" who are Earth's last hope against the coming alien invaders. He makes every effort to stop the two at every possible turn (although he tends to disregard GIR). This often leads to increased social difficulties at Skool, as they are constantly making a scene in class or in the cafeteria. As Agent Mothman Agent Mothman is Dib's secret agent name for The Swollen Eyeball Network. It is unknown how long he has been a part of the network, but all the other operatives seem to know who he is and his reputation for being crazy. Dib seems on better terms, however, with Agent Darkbootie. Darkbootie has helped Dib at least once in "Battle of the Planets," and gave him a chance to present the Network with all of his findings on Zim in "Battle-Dib." Dib is also less ridiculed by Agent Tunaghost, who helped him in "Gaz, Taster of Pork." The rest of the agents either find him annoying, crazy, or a disgrace to the Network. "Head" Gag Repeated cracks about the size of Dib's head have been made ever since a line of GIR's in "Door to Door" ("Whyyy is his heeead so biiig?"). Since this episode, jokes about Dib's head have been made in just about every episode. * In "Battle of the Planets," Professor Membrane said that Dib has been monitoring Mars since he was a baby with an "ENORMOUS HEAD!" * In "Future Dib," when the robot gnomes shoved him in the cage, his head didn't quite fit. * In "Tak: The Hideous New Girl," Invader Zim said that "Despite his large head, the Dib-monkey is quite stupid." Dib protested against this, but Zim didn't catch it. * In "Gaz, Taster of Pork," the Mysterious Mysteries anchor described him as a boy with "the largest head", accompanied by a picture of Dib's head that is captioned with "Still growing?". Later, when Dib was going through a list of spells on his Spelldrive, he said, "Too bad, a smaller head would be cool." * In "Mysterious Mysteries," one of Dib's classmates asked: "What's up with his head?" (which was ironic, considering the bizarre knot that is located on that particular student's forehead). The anchor in "Gaz, Taster of Pork" also described him as a boy with a "horribly large head", and Dib's introductory slide captioned him as a "large-headed believer". * In "Backseat Drivers From Beyond the Stars," Zim said, "...And to make it even sweeter, I'll land the Massive right on top of your landing-pad-size monster of a head which is disturbingly large!". Dib ran away screaming while saying, "Quit making fun of my head!" * In "Walk for Your Lives," when Dib fell out of Zim's garbage chute and into a neighbor's lap, she said, "Hey, look at that! It's one of them big-head boys!" * In "Dib's Wonderful Life of Doom," the (nonexistent) Meekrob told Dib that "no one else had a head large enough to accommodate so much power." * In "Dib's Wonderful Life of Doom," Gaz asked him, "Why do you have to have a head?" * In "Halloween Spectacular of Spooky Doom," numerous cracks were made about Dib's Head. The nightmare version of himself even told him his head is big, to which Dib replied, "My head's not big! Why does everyone say that?". Later, when a trick-or-treater shouted "Trick or treat!", Dib randomly shouted out, "My head's not big!" Finally, toward the climax of the episode, he appeared to have begun to accept his head's size, thinking, "maybe my head IS big..." * In "GIR Goes Crazy and Stuff," GIR's field of vision described the Dib hologram as "Big Head Boy." * In "Vindicated!," Invader Zim was shown to be thinking ". . . It's the size of a hippo, that head." * In "The Voting of the Doomed," Zim brought up Dib's head as part of his campaign, saying "Just what does Willy plan on doing about the size of Dib's giant head?" * In "The Sad, Sad Tale of Chickenfoot," a foreign ambassador asked the Professor, "Who is the big-headed boy?". * In "The Frycook What Came from All That Space," Tallest Purple asked "Who's that large-headed kid?" when Dib called them. Facts of Doom * Dib is perhaps the most antisocial character in the show; he has no friends, and most of the other Skoolchildren usually make a point of steering clear of him. This isn't to say that his sister isn't very good at her social skills either. * At some point in his life, he tried to raise the dead, as referenced by Professor Membrane twice in Backseat Drivers from Beyond the Stars. It is inferred that he succeeded, as Membrane shouts "There better not be any walking dead up there!" * Despite his determination, he loses far more battles against Zim than he wins. Even when he wins, his plans don't work out the way he plans them. Before the seventh or so script, his profile on Nick.com said he was never able to win. * A misconception of the end of Future Dib is that he aged, but he'd been there for a month and the beard was most likely a momentary gag. * The creators took a liking to his unique hairstyle, and in Dib's Wonderful Life of Doom, they wanted it to grow into a longer, more jagged shape. * Although perceived as insane, he may be, next to Gaz, the most sane character in the series. * His Swollen Eyeball codename may derive from the legend of Mothman, who would appear right before a disaster as a warning. * Whenever he talks to Tak's ship and Zim's Dib Robot (both share Dib's personality) he starts to notice why people see him as obnoxious. * Dib is Jhonen Vasquez's favourite character in the show. * In the commentary for Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy, Jhonen Vasquez jokingly stated that the original idea for the episode was for Zim to kill Dib permanently, and for Dib to be replaced with a new kid named Louie. However, Nickelodeon wouldn't permit it. * On Verizon cable, in the summary for Mysterious Mysteries, Dib's name is misspelled "Dub" rather than "Dib". * Dib had a yellow shirt in the pilot. * One of the ideas for the series finale Invader Dib would have had Dib going to Irk and engage its citizens in an all-out war, teaming up with Tak to do so in spite of the fact that she is of the Irken race as well. However, Dib and Tak would end up losing and be exiled to planet Saturn, where their relationship with each other would bloom, as claimed by Eric Trueheart. * Dib was first seen in a commercial for Invader Zim before it premiered; the commercial started off seemingly as a typical Nickelodeon bumper, until it was interrupted by Dib, who stated "Zim is coming!" A YouTube video of it may be available. * Dib is not playable in Nicktoons MLB, but he has a collectible card. The card mentions that he knows that there is 'alien activity' going on in the major leagues. Voice Actor Dib is portrayed by Andy Berman in the original American version and by Ayumi Kida in the Japanese dub of the show. In the German dub, he is voiced by Tobias Müllter. See also * Complete Filmography * Dib and Zim's Relationship * Dib and GIR's Relationship * Dib and Gaz's Relationship * Dib and Tak's Relationship * Dib and Professor Membrane's Relationship * Ms. Bitters and Dib's Relationship * Dib:Screenshots External links * Interview with Jhonen Vasquez es:Dib pt:Dib Category:Main Characters Category:Males Category:Humans Category:Skool Students Category:Skoolchildren Category:Dib's Family Category:Human Category:Insane